Origin of frequency shift and temporal instability in photorefractive self-pumped phase conjugators

The physical origin of frequency shift and dynamic instability in a photorefractive self-pumped phase conjugator is analyzed by use of four-wave mixing and multi-four-wave mixing. We show that the frequency shift and the instability result from the requirement of the maximal energy transfer between the interacting beams. Two examples of numerical results in a cat self-pumped phase conjugator are given, which are in good agreement with previous experimental results. A simple method is proposed to change an unstable phase-conjugate output to a stable one. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America [S0740-3224(00)02906-4].